Cosmopolitan has issued an apology to actress Scarlett Johansson after she accused the magazine of publishing fabricated quotes.
Earlier this week the Lost in Translation star threatened the Natmag monthly with legal action after an interview with her appeared in the January edition including quotes where she talked about her marriage to actor Ryan Reynolds.
Johansson is known not to discuss her personal life, and her publicist Marcel Pariseau claimed that some of the quotes used were “completely fabricated”.
In a statement on its website, the magazine said today: ‘Cosmopolitan would like to apologise to our readers and Scarlett Johansson for inaccuracies in our January issue where we said she talked about her marriage and her relationship with her husband. We now understand Ms Johansson has not commented publicly on her married life and did not do so on this occasion.”
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Large parts of the article were taken from an interview that Johansson gave to the US edition of Cosmopolitan, and the quotes about her marriage were apparently added from copy bought from London-based celebrity agency Hot Features.
In an earlier statement, Cosmopolitan’s owner NatMag said: “UK Cosmopolitan printed an interview with Scarlett Johansson that included quotes from an agency journalist regarding the actress’s marriage.
“We ran these quotes in good faith with the understanding that the interview was carried out with the approval of Ms Johansson and her publicist.”
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The magazine refused to comment any further on the issue or how the apparently false quotes came about, and Hot Features was unavailable for comment.
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